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8. Northern Territory
From 1863 until 1911 the Northern Territory was annexed to South Australia. For legislation applying in
The laws

the Northern Territory prior to 1895, refer to the South Australian table.

Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

1890s State Children’s Act 1895 (SA)

State Children’s Council established
with responsibility for the care of State
children.
Definitions
State child – includes a destitute child,
neglected child and convicted child or
any child received into an institution to be
apprenticed or placed out. For definitions
of ‘destitute child’ and ‘neglected child’
see Destitute Persons Act 1881 (SA).
Key provisions
State Children’s Council responsible
for the care, management and control
of State Children and their property,
including their apprenticeship, placement
and attendance at school until 13 years.
Repealed by Child Welfare Ordinance
1958 (Cth)

Children’s Protection Act 1899 (SA)

Any near relative, guardian or other
person who neglects, ill-treats or
abandons or fails to provide food,
clothing and lodgings for a child liable to
imprisonment. A child who has been so
treated may be removed to an institution.
Repealed by Child Welfare Ordinance
1958 (Cth)

1910s Northern Territory Aboriginals Act

1910 (SA)
Established the Northern Territory
Aboriginals Department with
responsibility for the control and welfare
of Aborigines and ‘to provide where
possible for the custody, maintenance
and education of the children of
aboriginals’.

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Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

Definitions
aboriginal institution – includes a mission
station, reformatory, orphanage school,
home, reserve, or other institution ‘for
the benefit, care and protection of
aboriginals or half-castes of the Northern
Territory’
half-caste – the offspring ‘of an aboriginal
mother and other than an aboriginal
father’ except those people deemed to
be ‘aboriginal’
aboriginal – ‘an aboriginal native of
Australia or any of the islands adjacent
or belonging thereto, or a half-caste
who is living with an aboriginal as wife,
husband or child, or a half-caste who,
otherwise than as a wife, husband or
child, habitually lives or associates with
aboriginals or a half-caste whose age
does not exceed 16 years’
Key provisions
Provides for the removal, detention
and re-location of Aboriginal people
on reserves. Chief Protector made
the legal guardian of every ‘aboriginal
child’ notwithstanding that any such
child has a parent or living relative, until
such child attains the age of 18 except
while the child is a State Child (under
the State Children’s Act 1895 (SA)).
Regulations may be made for the ‘care,
custody and education of the children
of aboriginals’; providing for the transfer
of any ‘aboriginal’ or ‘half-caste’ child
to an ‘aboriginal institution’ or industrial
school; for the control, care and
education of ‘aboriginal’ or ‘half-caste’
children in ‘aboriginal institutions’; for the
supervision of such institutions and for
the terms of apprenticeship or service for
‘aboriginal children’.
Repealed by Aboriginals Act 1918

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Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

Aboriginals Ordinance 1911 (Cth)

To be read with Aborigines Act 1910.
After the Northern Territory became
a territory of the Commonwealth on
1/1/1911 all South Australian laws
remained in force until altered by a
Commonwealth law.
Key provisions
Chief Protector may undertake the care,
custody or control of any ‘aboriginal or
half-caste’ if in his opinion it is necessary
or desirable. A Protector or police
officer may take ‘any aboriginal or half-
caste’ into custody if he believes that
person is not being properly treated. An
‘aboriginal or half-caste’ remaining within
a prohibited area is guilty of an offence
and may be removed.
Repealed by Aboriginals Ordinance 1918

Aboriginals Ordinance 1918

Combined the 1910 Act (SA) and the
1911 Ordinance (Cth), giving the Chief
Protector wide-ranging powers over
Aboriginal people.
Amended by
Aboriginals Ordinance 1924 (No 2) –
amends the definition of aboriginal – a
half-caste male under 18 deemed to be
an ‘aboriginal’ until the age of 21.
Aboriginals Ordinance (North Australia)
1927 and Aboriginals Ordinance (Central
Australia) 1927 – amends the definition
of aboriginal – ‘a male half-caste whose
age exceeds 21 years who in the opinion
of the Chief Protector is incapable of
managing his own affairs and is declared
by the Chief Protector to be subject to
this Ordinance’.

1930s Aboriginals Ordinance 1933 – an offence Adoption of Children Ordinance 1935

for any males, other than an ‘aboriginal (Cth)
or half-caste’ to consort with a ‘female
Provided for legal adoption of children
aboriginal’ unless lawfully married (i.e.
in the NT for the first time. Court will not
with permission of Chief Protector).
recognise consents signed before or
within seven days of birth.

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Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

Aboriginals Ordinance 1936 – Chief Amended by

Protector may declare that a ‘half-caste’ Adoption of Children Amendment Act
shall be deemed not to be a ‘half-caste’
(revokable). 1984 – recognition of traditional
Aboriginal marriages.
Aboriginals Ordinance 1939 – Director of
Native Affairs replaces Chief Protector. Repealed by Adoption of Children Act
1994
Repealed by Welfare Ordinance 1953

1950s Aboriginals Ordinance 1953 (No 2) Child Welfare Ordinance 1958

Amended definition of ‘aboriginal’ to Replaced State Children’s Act 1895
remove references to ‘half-castes’. (SA). Similar definitions of ‘destitute’ and
‘neglected’ as in the 1895 Act.
Key provisions
Director made the legal guardian of all Key provisions
‘aboriginals’. Director may declare a Director is the legal guardian of every
person with an ‘aboriginal’ ancestor to State child to the exclusion of the
be an ‘aboriginal’ if it is in that person’s child’s parent or other guardian. A court
‘best interests’ and that person requests may declare a child to be destitute,
the Director to do so. Director to keep neglected, incorrigible or uncontrollable
a register of persons declared to be and commit the child to the care of
‘aboriginals’. the Director or another person, to be
sent to an institution or released on
Repealed by Welfare Ordinance 1953
probation. A State child who absconds
Welfare Ordinance 1953–60 from an institution or other placement
Director of Welfare given extensive is guilty of an offence. The Territory
powers over the lives of people declared Administrator may declare a mission
to be ‘wards’. Although the Ordinance station, reformatory, orphanage, school,
made no reference to Aboriginality, the home or other establishment whether
exception of people eligible to vote within the NT or not as an institution for
from the class of people that could be the purposes of the Ordinance. A State
declared to be wards meant that it could child may be sent to a place within the
only apply to Aboriginal people. Commonwealth to be placed under
control, trained, educated, cared for and
Key provisions maintained.
The Administrator may declare a person
Amended by
to be a ‘ward’ because that person
‘stands in need of special care and Child Welfare Ordinance 1969 –
assistance’ owing to that person’s Ministers in other States may send
‘manner of living’; ‘inability, without State children to the Northern Territory
assistance, adequately to manage his (reciprocal arrangements).
own affairs’; ‘standard of social habit and Repealed by Community Welfare Act
behaviour’; or ‘personal associations’. 1983
No person entitled to vote may be
declared a ward. The Director of Welfare
made the legal guardian of all wards. The
Director to keep a Register of Wards.
The Wards Appeal Tribunal to hear
appeals against a wardship declaration.

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Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

If the Director considered it to be in the

best interests of the ward, a ward may
be taken into custody; detained on a
reserve or in an institution; or removed
from one reserve or institution to another.
The Administrator’s authorisation
required for the removal of a child under
14 years if it means removal from his/
her parents. Director may make orders
authorising police to enter, search and
remove a child. A non-ward may not
habitually live with a ward unless the
non-ward is a relation. Director may
order a ward not to live with another
ward. A male non-ward may not live
with or be in the company of a female
ward after sunset. A ward may not marry
without the consent of the Director.
Director may manage property of wards.
Repealed by Social Welfare Ordinance
1964

1960s Welfare Ordinance 1961

Extends the definition of ward to include
an Aboriginal person under the control
of the Qld, WA or SA legislation entering
the NT and allows for the removal of
wards from the NT.
Key provisions
If the removal of a ward would mean
the separation of a child under 14 years
from his/her parents or the separation
of a parent from a child under the age
of 15 years, then the court must be
satisfied that ‘necessary and adequate
arrangements have been made for the
‘maintenance, education and care of the
child’.
Repealed by Social Welfare Ordinance
1964

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Decade Laws applying specifically to General child welfare laws/adoption

Aboriginal children laws

Social Welfare Ordinance 1964

Restricted entry to reserves and
assistance of the Department of Social
Welfare to people who ‘in the opinion of
the Director are socially or economically
in need of assistance’. A welfare officer
can suspend the right of an ‘aboriginal’
to enter or remain on a reserve.
Repealed by Community Welfare Act
1983

After the Social Welfare Ordinance 1964, Aboriginal children were removed under the Child Welfare
Ordinance 1958 and subsequent child welfare legislation.

1980s Community Welfare Act 1983

Introduced the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle for the first time in legislation in
Australia.
Definitions
child – under 18 years
child in need of care – ‘a child whose parents or guardian have abandoned the child
and cannot be found; whose parents are unwilling to maintain the child; who has
suffered maltreatment or has engaged in conduct constituting a serious danger to
his health and safety; who is excused from criminal responsibility but has persistently
engaged in conduct which is harmful to the general welfare of the community
measured by commonly accepted community standards as to warrant action’
maltreatment – includes physical or emotional abuse, severe body malfunctioning and
sexual abuse
Key provisions
The Minister may grant assistance to a person, family or group. The Minister is to act
in accordance with the welfare of the child. In making orders in relation to a child in
need of care the court must take account of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.

1990s Adoption of Children Act 1994

Included the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. Recognised traditional Aboriginal
marriages for the purpose of adoption.
Regulations
Adoption of Children Regulation 1994 – a parent may record wishes regarding the
suitability of the adoptive parents and regarding access to the child or giving or
receiving information about the child.

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